


Lights off

by FuckinNameChoise



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Like really slow so bear with me, Slow Burn, have patience, very slow writter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-25 16:54:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12040191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuckinNameChoise/pseuds/FuckinNameChoise
Summary: If ever was a question that needed an answer it was this: What makes a person shine?Recently graduated, Sansa Stark finds herself applying for a job in one of the biggest companies of Westeros.





	1. Prologue/Into the Den

The light went out.

That was as simple as he could put it. Not that he had ever had much of it inside himself, to begin with. But Joanna had given him some of her own. She had been his beacon amidst the ocean of darkness that threatened to drown him.

Unlike most people, Tywin Lannister was able to remember all of his childhood.

He could remember his Lady mother pregnant with each and every one of his brothers and his sister. He could remember his _Lord_ father sneaking out of Casterly Rock to meet one of his whores. He remembered the anger, the impotence of knowing that if he, a mere cub, could see what his father was doing so clearly then so could his mother.

He remembered the grief of losing her but also the relief. The relief that no more her name would be tainted by Tytos’s actions. Not her name, only her memory.

He remembered having to take care of his siblings, having to be the father that they didn’t have.

He remembered the late nights checking the finances, making sure his father didn’t bankrupt the family.

Yes, Tywin Lannister could remember all of his childhood.

Only because he had never really been a child.

Everyone wondered why the son of the ever laughing Tytos was so somber, then they wondered why he was so dark, why he didn’t laugh. They made jokes and showed no respect. By the time he was through with those who talked about him, everyone wondered why he was so cruel.

But they never wondered aloud anymore.

He made sure that even if they held no respect for the man whose seed had created him, they would respect the family name.

He also remembered those ten years in which he, for the very first time in his life, had been happy. As strange as that may have seen. But then that happiness died, along with his wife.

Tywin Lannister was a very good swimmer but when she died, he let the waves carry him.

* * *

 Being the third child of six was not an easy thing, being the third child of Eddard Stark and Catelyn Tully even less so.

She had grown hearing how honorable her father was and her mother so dutiful. How sharp Robb was or Jon brave. Arya so adventurous, and Sansa?

Everybody always remarked how beautiful she was and how surely, she would marry someone with great lineage. Sansa had fed those words, had acted like the Lady she would have been had she been born in the old ages. And that was why everybody was so surprised when she decided to leave Winterfell to attend to the Old Maesters University in King’s Landing. Wondered why she hadn’t returned once she graduated. To marry, or to work in her father’s company at least.

The only ones who hadn’t been surprised were her parents. Of course not, they had seen her school grades, had read her essays. They had seen their daughter hide her brain from others behind her looks. And that was why they had let her go without a fight, even though they would miss her terribly.

Because it was time for people to start talking about how intelligent Sansa Stark was. 

 

* * *

 

* * *

 There was a beauty to the building.

The whole structure was covered in yellow glass that gave the effect of being built with gold. The entrance was adorned with nothing but a crimson carpet. There were no big signs or logos on the façade. There was no need, everyone knew what that building was and to whom it belonged to.

“Welcome to Lannister Enterprises,” said the woman sitting behind the front desk. “How can I help you?”

“Thank you, I’m here for an interview with your Marketing Manager? I’m Sansa Stark.”

If the woman was surprised by her name, she didn’t show it. Flashing a smile, she picked the phone and dialed to, Sansa assumed, confirm her appointment.

Once she had graduated from university, Sansa had been confronted with the truth of not knowing what to do next. There had been a couple of offers from some company or the other but Sansa didn’t accept them for the same reason she hadn’t gone back to Winterfell.

She wanted to make a name for herself, not because of the one she had inherited from her father.

Emerging companies looking to add someone with an ancestral lineage to their rank or seeking her father’s backing. They believed themselves cunning, asking subtle questions about the mechanism of the northern enterprises and how much did she know of them. How her studies had been paid or things like that. She had plastered a fake smile on her face after catching wind of their intentions, telling them how she would be waiting for their call and when they had come she had rejected each and every one.

She had expressed her frustration to Margery and her friend had, after first having suggested and been politely declined a position on ‘Roses and Thorns‘, come up with the idea that perhaps she should try sending an application to the only place where her last name wouldn’t buy her anything, quite the contrary in fact.

She was pulled out of her musings by the voice of the receptionist.

“14th floor, there will be someone waiting for you there to guide you to the interview. Good Luck.”

Sansa thanked her and made her way towards the elevator, trying to ignore the tone of the woman’s voice or the slight flicker of something in her eyes when she had wished her good luck.

Looking back, she thought, maybe she should have.

As the doors of the elevator opened on the floor where her meeting was to take place, Sansa found herself face to face with a man. If she had to guess, she would say that he must have been in his middles or late fifties. He had a neatly cut blond beard, the same color as his thinning hair. Dressed in a suit that accentuated his body type, concealing the thick waist and small paunch.  

“Miss Stark. Kevan Lannister, at your service.” He said in way of greeting. He didn’t smile but his eyes showed kindness instead of the coldness she would have expected associated with the name. “If you will please follow me.”

As they made their way through a couple of offices and meeting rooms Sansa tried to remember what little she knew of the man. His name hadn’t come up a lot in the conversations she had heard her father have with his associates and when it did, it was only in reference to something related to the older Lannister brother. Still, she didn’t think that his position in the company would be lower than that of a Marketing Manager which pondered the question of why would he, of all people, be the one playing a sort of errand boy.

She was still trying to decipher all of what had transpired since she arrived when he opened the door to the biggest and most beautiful office Sansa had ever laid her eyes upon. 

Unlike the ones she had passed before, this office's outside walls were made of concrete instead of glass and behind the door that had just been opened was a room probably the size of her flat. Closer to her was a dark wood coffee table surrounded by leather chairs, further in the room stood a beautiful desk with a marble wall behind it. There were a couple of vases and plants to complete the decor. Everything looked expensive. It was extravagant but tastefully so, nothing like the other offices she had been in her previous interviews. There was no way that this office belonged to a mere manager, even if it was from _this_ company. 

Inviting her to take a seat, and as if reading her mind, Kevan revealed who owned the office.

"My brother will be joining you soon Miss Stark."

_What?_

"Excuse me, Mr. Lannister but there must be a mistake." Sansa tried to remember the whole process she had to endure to accomplish this interview. Sure, Margery had been the one who discovered that there was an open position at Lannister Co. and she had been the one to sent her resume, but Sansa had read carefully what they were looking for, had received and sent the emails confirming the interview. At all times it was said that the position for which she was postulating was to be the private assistant to the Marketing Manager. "I'm supposed to be meeting Roose Bolton? The position is to be his assistant after all. "

Kevan just smiled.

"Do not worry Miss Stark, I'm sure my brother will clear up all of your doubts." Still smiling Kevan led her to a chair in front of the desk. The desk with a _very_ distinctive name on the plate, a plate that had been there the whole time and she had so completely missed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to my office. I'm waiting for a call from Bravos and I cannot miss it for anything in the world."

 And just like that, Sansa Stark found herself sitting alone in the office of one Tywin Lannister. 

 

* * *

 

[Pinterest board for references](https://www.pinterest.com/robertcarlylefa/lights-off/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, you made it! Thank you very much for reading. I had planned for this chapter to be larger and to contain their actual meeting but as the tags say, i am a very slow writer so i decided to leave it at that so i could gather your reactions while i typed away the rest.  
> Please leave your comments and opinions, i would love to hear (well, read) what you have to say.  
> Thank you again for reading!
> 
> Ps. Also, english is not my mother tongue so sorry for any mistakes you may encounter. I'm also looking for a beta so if you know anyone who could be interested or if yourself are, please let me know?


	2. Impressions

Sansa could not decide what was worse, the wait or  _this._

After Kevan had left, she had waited for what had seemed like hours but, in reality, must have only been fifteen minutes. Sansa Stark nervous and alone with her thoughts, this was not a good combination.

She had stressed over what she was wearing for most of the time. She had dressed for an interview with Roose Bolton, not for one with Tywin Lannister. Which did not mean that she was badly dressed or anything like that, but she had not bothered to buy a new suit or heels. She had done her makeup in the cab on her way here because her alarm had decided to betray her at the last moment. And she had lost her sense of time, distracted in a book about the differences between the old trade in Westeros and the new one. She hadn’t worried much then because she knew how Bolton was, she had met him on different occasions back when he worked with her father. She knew enough of the man to know that he would not grant her any favor just because he knew her when she was a kid, she knew that he didn’t care about fashion or the like so he probably wouldn’t notice that her clothes were from three seasons past.

Tywin Lannister though, that was a whole different matter. She had seen pictures of the man, always wearing a perfectly tailored suit made by the highest fashion designers of the year. She didn’t know if he had specifically requested those suits or if he had had someone do it for him but she did know that he, at the least, deeply cared about appearances. Or maybe not, who knew. At the current time, Sansa wasn’t sure if she knew anything. Those damn nerves of hers would be her death someday, she was sure of it.

She had been in the process of checking her makeup for the 5th time when she heard the door open and as she made the move to stand up and greet Mr. Lannister, she was met with the sight of him holding up a hand for her to remain seated. He didn’t speak and he didn’t look up from the phone was holding in his other hand. After that took a seat across from her, eyes still glued to the screen, and had remained like that for the last five minutes.

Trying not to fidget and compelling herself to leave the bloody mirror on her purse,  _really her makeup was fine, s_ he decided that the silence was much worse than the waiting. She didn’t know what to do. Was she supposed to wait indefinitely for the man to finish whatever the hell he was doing? She felt insulted, first the deception about the interview and with whom it was going to be and now this total lack of regard for her, and her time. The nerves she had been feeling since the moment she was left alone where starting to turn into anger.

Tywin could see that the girl was about to lose her temper.

_Good._

When Kevan had told him that it might be time to hire an assistant, he had been a bit skeptical. He did not see why there would be any need for it, he worked better alone and had done so for almost all his life. When he refused, his brother had only shrugged, telling him to let him know if he changed his mind.

And he had.

Lannister Enterprises was looking to expand their business to the cities of Essos and Kevan was the one in charge of the expansion, that meant that he had to spend a lot of his time talking with people from Bravos or traveling there and Tywin hadn’t realized how much work his brother had been silently helping him with up until that point when for obvious reasons, he had stopped doing it.

So, when the older man found himself falling asleep on his desk for the fifth time in the month following the initial suggestion, he finally told his brother to get it done. And Kevan had, following his brother orders, maintain the whole thing a secret until he had one candidate left. Tywin hadn’t wanted any of his competitors sending spies to work for him, to try to gain some sort of leverage or insight on his company, on  _him._  Which made the identity of the girl sitting in front of him a funny thing and if he were the sort of man who found things funny, he would have laughed. Thankfully, he was not.

“Did your father send you to spy on me?”

Whatever anger Sansa had been feeling before was a mere speck of dust compared to the one she was feeling now.  _How dare he_! The implications that her father would do such a thing or that she would accept to do it, was a complete and utter insult. So much for trying to leave the Stark name behind. She had half a mind to leave without even answering but, unlike him, she did have manners. _And_ , she felt compelled to defend both hers and her father’s honor before leaving.

“My father wouldn’t step so low Mr. Lannister”  _Unlike you._  That last part hung in the air, unspoken but acknowledged by both parties. “He doesn’t even know I applied for a position in your company and seeing the kind of regard you hold towards my person, I don’t think he’ll ever need to know. Thank you for your  _time.”_

Standing up, Sansa collected her purse from the floor, readying herself to leave.

“Sit down Miss Stark.”

“I don’t see the nee-“

“ _Sit down.”_ She didn’t know why, he had not raised his voice but there had been such a force in his tone, such authority, that Sansa suddenly found herself obeying. “Now Miss Stark, tell me. Do you think I would have gotten to the position I now held if had been careless?”

“No sir.”

“Now say, if it had been the other way around and it was one of my children sitting in front of your father looking for a job, what do you think Eddard’s thoughts would be?”

She knew the answer, Hell she knew her father would have mistrusted even a cup of coffee featuring the Lannister name, that didn’t mean she wanted to admit it. But Tywin was looking at her, expectantly, his eyes never leaving her own. His face betrayed nothing but his eyes, there was a glint of something there, smugness maybe. She also noticed that the green held traces of gold, like splashes.

“He wouldn’t have trusted them” She finally conceded.

“No, he wouldn’t have.” Now she was sure it was smugness reflected in his eyes. “And with good reason.”

She wanted to protest that she wasn’t like his children, that he wasn’t like her father but even to her own ears it would have sounded somewhat childish. He must have read her thoughts though because what came out of his mouth next was exactly what she was thinking.

“And yes, while our families may be completely different from each other.” She held back a snort, that was the understatement of the year. “You will find, Miss Stark, that both wolves and lions protect their belongings.”

With that, he stood up and made his way towards a small bar on the corner of the room and started pouring whiskey into one of the tumblers on the table. He offered some to her but she politely declined. She could barely control herself and her nerves around this man, she didn’t think that adding alcohol to the mix would be a great idea. He raised an eyebrow at her but made no further comment.

“Well now that we have established that your intentions with my company are _oh so honorable_ ,” Tywin said once he was back in his chair, taking a sip of his drink. “Tell me why I should hire you as my P.A.”

She wanted to throttle the man, she really did. But she didn’t think that murdering a possible future boss would look good on her resume, no matter how much of an arse he was. So, she took a deep breath to collect herself and started doing something she could do very, very well if Arya was to be believed.

Talk about herself.

…

The girl was certainly a Stark, he could see that she had inherited the quick temper of her father _and_ the ability to control herself when needed. In the physique department, she reminded him of a younger Catelyn Tully but she was far more beautiful than her mother had ever been.

He partially listened to what she was saying, he had decided to hire her before she had even set foot on the building. At first, it had only been because he knew it would irk the head of the Stark family but now that he had met her, his interest had been peaked. She was a strong woman to be sure but he could see short, very well hidden, glimpses of an insecure child, probably due to her upbringing. But despite it all, there was a fire about her, something that intrigued him.

“Can you start on Monday?” He cut her off midsentence and that bothered her, he could see it plainly in her blue eyes, but her face was a mask of decorum.

“Of course.”

“Welcome to Lannister Enterprises Miss Stark,” Tywin said standing up. “We can do all the paperwork on Monday."

“Thank you for the opportunity Mr. Lannister.” She said also standing and shaking the hand that had been offered. She could swear that she felt some kind of electricity when their hands touched but the feeling was soon forgotten, as he guided her towards the door.

They exchanged fair wells and she was nearly at the elevator’s doors when his voice stopped her.

“Oh, and Miss Stark? Do try to wear something more up to date from now on.” And with that, he closed the door of his office.

_She definitely wanted to throttle the man._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Don't forget to leave your lovely comments and Kudos.  
> Thank you so so much for reading!


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